Anyone Built An Award/ Morley JD10 Preamp, Any info about?

[vikki]

 Just wondering if anyone had delved into the Award Session JD 10 preamp, any circuits or layouts around?
Thanks
Vikki

[nbabmf]

I repaired one a few months back.  It had a 4558...

[Cthulhu]

That's my current project.

[mthibeau]

Tagging along, would love to build the G12T speaker emulator that is inside that preamp in a stand alone box.

[Cthulhu]

IT will be simple, by the schem it's just half IC....

[roseblood11]

Old thread...

But this pedal was quite useful and as it's out of production, one of the PCB makers might be interested in tracing it...

Award-Session posted the schematics of the JD10 mk1 and the JD20, but without the parts values. Maybe someone own one of these pedals and can add the values?
https://www.award-session.com/award-session_manuals.php

EDIT: Parts values are included in the schematics for the SG75 and SG100 amp. That should be a good starting point.

Description: http://effectextra.blogspot.com/2013/08/award-session-jd10.html

A JD10 is for sale on ebay.co.uk, ending soon!

Steward Ward from Award-Sessions wrote about the JP pedals on the tdpri forum:

Well, a little explanation is needed here. The Award-Session JD10 MKI is exactly the same as the Morley JD10 apart from the silk screen details on the case. It was designed by me for Jerry Donahue primarilly as a direct recording preamp, but with guitar-pedal-amp (stomp box) use as a secondary mode of use. The MKI was used on most of the Hellecasters albums by Jerry, John and Will. Only Jerry used it exclusively on the albums, the others alternated between JD10s and their amps.

The only album JD10 was NOT used on, was their first 'Return of the Hellecasters.' At that time the JD10 did not exist, but Jerry did use the JD10 predecessor the AW10 'SessionMaster MKII' rackmount unit - three still in regular use at Abbey Road Studios for advert and jingle guitar parts to save much time micing up amps! AW10's unique slightly knarly sound when set up as 'on-the-edge' distortion caused Jerry to request some changes to JD10 MKI...

The JD10 MKII is exactly the same layout, but the distortion circuitry was updated to make the tone a little more knarly, like a single ended class A output tube would be. That means asymmetric distortion, where one half cycle has a different distortion shape to the other and starts their distortion at different amplitude levels for each half cycle. This increases the second or even harmonic content of the sound. Further, many players found the JD10 too bright when used as a stomp box, so we dealt with that issue too. A little top end was attenuated when the speaker simulator was not in use, so the stomp box mode sounds a little darker over the MKI.

The MKI is not better than the MKII... they are just different. Some people like the MKI others prefer the MKII... and vice versa. Once you put a product on the market and then later alter it, it always produces split camps of opinions. We can never please everyone... so we don't try!

If there was not any difference between a MKI and a MKII, there would not be any point to making a MKII? So anyone should expect there to be some differences!

The JD20 circuitry is practically identical to the JD10 MKI, except the gain switch was moved to an extra footswitch and we added a balance control to stop the leap in volume when switching between classic and rock modes. Simple really and brought about by customer requests. However, we only made about 100, as it collided with the introduction of digital pedals and, overnight, dealers wanted to sell only digital pedals because they looked better value in terms of what they could do. This industry is influenced heavily by FASHION, so we decided not to re-make it untill the digital thing found its haters. However, we never got around to bringing it back!

To say that any of these pedals do not work well into a tube amp is, to my mind, a little extreme. What you should really say is: "I don't like the sound of my MKI/MKII in to my XYX-50 tube amp." Tube amps come in many varied tonal flavours - as do tranny amps, so that statement is a bit harsh frankly. There will, of course be many tube amps that the JD10 can sound good through. Further, it depends on what speakers the amp is fitted with and the tonal preferences of the player too. An AC30, with it's very toppy Celestion Blues will make the JD10 sound completely different to, say, a Fender Twin 64 RI with it's 'upper mid focussed' pair of Eminence Legend 125s (although they a badged as custom Fender speakers).

The SP10 was a higher gained 'metal' pedal based on the JD10 principle designed as for conventional guitar-pedal-amp use. Not as a direct recording preamp.

The GG10 or AP10 were not for electric guitar. They were acoustic instrument preamps. We have stopped those too.

Sadly, we have now stopped making the JD10s entirely. Why...? Well, it's just too hard to sell enough to make it worth my while... is the short, blunt answer. I have a certain amount of cash to invest in my business activities, to earn my living. However, I have found other projects which produce a much higher return on my investment... so I have followed that route.

Unlike Jim Marshall, I accept not everyone will like my products and I take it on the chin. There are plenty of other pedals those people would probably find better for their tastes.

A big thank you to all those who have bought the 17,000 JD10's we made since 1994. I really appreciate your past custom.